


It takes a village

by jessikast



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 12:56:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessikast/pseuds/jessikast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-The Will of the Empress. A young man arrives at the palace in Summersea, and while Sandry is uncertain of her affections her nearest and dearest make up their minds that he just might suit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It takes a village

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JanLevine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JanLevine/gifts).



Duke Vedris paued a moment in the shadow of the large arched doorway to watch as Sandry greeted the Namornese delegation riding into the courtyard. Her voice rang clearly over the sound of horse shoes clattering on the stone flags and hostlers bustling into take bridles and baggage as she welcomed the traders and members of the gold guild from Kugisko.

Vedris was doing this more and more often - allowing Sandry to take charge of these matters, letting his people see her competence at statecraft. Although he felt confident he had many more years in him yet, his thought were turning more often to his legacy and although Sandry didn't know it he was working to make sure that the paperwork naming her as his heir was in place should...well, should it be needed.

He only hoped that Sandry might have time to find a young man of her own before she had to follow in his footsteps. It would be hard enough for an heiress and powerful mage in her own right to find someone who could be a partner for her without being intimidated or attracted for the wrong reasons, but it would be even harder when she was Duchess Sandrilene of Emelan.

To this end, he had made gentle enquiries of delegations or ambassadors that he was hosting, making it clear that if there were eligible young men in their retinue that he would be happy to host them as well. Yazmin laughed at him, gently teasing that now that he was settled again he was turning into a matchmaker, and truly he couldn't say that he was wrong. However, she also helped nudge those young men who seemed decent towards Sandry in the subtle way Vedris himself could never manage, or gently deflect their interest when it was clear that Sandry's affection weren't in their direction. Subtlety was key, really - after Namorn Sandry was more prickly than ever about the idea of being set up and he didn't want to risk her temper if she realised.

But, Sandry should be happy. Deserved to be happy. Ruling could be hard and lonely, and Vedris loved his niece. He could afford to risk her ire for a little while. He smiled a little to himself as a pleasant-faced member of the delegation dismounted his horse to bow deeply and with sincere respect in front of Sandry. Maybe this time...

*****

The pleasant-faced young man had a letter for Daja. She had been invited to join Vedris and Sandry for dinner along with their guest, as some of the guild members knew her from her stay in Kugisko. With glee she recognised Nia's handwriting on the letter and opened it quickly, hoping to at least skim the contents before they were called into eat.

Among updates about Nia's successes mastering her magecraft and the progress of courtship negotiations with her shipwright beau, and a funny story about Jory's experiments with foreign spices, Nia included an introduction. "The man I am sending this letter with is named Yennik," she wrote, "and he is an ambient mage like we are. I met him because his talent lies in music and he commissioned a gitar from my workshop. As his travels were taking him onto Summersea anyway, I commend him to you. I hope you might be able to create the tuning pegs for the gitar - at present they are simply well-made metal but I am sure you can do better!"

Daja turned her interest back to Yennik, blushing slightly as she had ignored him in her haste to open the letter. "I'm sorry for my rudeness," she said. "I'm Daja. Nia writes that you have magic with music and she would like me to help with the gitar she made you."

Yennik smiled and gave her a small bow. "I understand - I enjoyed Nia's company while I stayed in Kugisko, and you must miss her. I admit, when she told me about you and the other ambient mages who are your friends I was eager to get an introduction. Ambient mages are rare enough that it is a treat for me to talk to others about our crafts."

Daja smiled back at him. He was slightly taller than her and she estimated he might be just two or three years older. His friendly manner was disarming and his eyes intelligent, but she didn't think that his friendliness was feigned or insincere.

"I don't know if we'll be seated together at dinner, but I'd be pleased if you'd join me later in the evening. I'd love to see your gitar and hear about your time in Kugisko.” Daja paused, and glanced over to where Sandry was speaking with a trader. There was something about Yennik’s manner, the laugh lines around his eyes, that she liked. At the same time, something about his bearing reminded her of Sandry; even when she was _trying_ to be not-noble, she couldn’t help the way she stood or the way she looked around the room to assess everyone around her. Daja thought Yennik was doing the same thing, and she thought that Sandry was probably a better judge of character in this than she was. Daja could sometimes hammer people flat – Sandry could draw them out.

“My foster-sister Sandry would be interested too, I think." Daja continued. And Sandry would be – if nothing else if Yennik was travelled he would be able to describe fashions from other countries.

Yennik's smiled again. "I would be honoured."

***

Briar’s stroll towards his workroom slowed when he realised the door was open. The door was _never_ open. Or at least, the girls were allowed in, and of course Rosethorn. And Evvy when she came to visit. But Sandry wasn’t visiting today, Daja was out at the markets buying some raw materials she wanted which should take hours longer, Tris was still on her way back from Lightsbridge and he wasn’t expecting anyone from Winding Circle.

He allowed a knife to slip from its sheath on his wrist into his palm, and walked cat-quiet towards the door. Closer, he could hear quiet music coming from the room which was…completely unexpected, actually. A thief wouldn’t announce themselves so loudly. Creeping closer until he could look through the doorway, he saw a young man with dark loose hair bent over a gitar. His clothes were good quality but practical – they reminded Briar of Vedris, whose wealth was obvious for those who could judge quality of clothes or small jewels, but whose main priority was practicality and ease of movement.

Briar reached out to the plants in his workroom – some were sick plants he was nursing back to health, others shakkan trees he was working on or plants he was growing until they were big enough to transport to a garden. They were _happy_. They emanated good feelings back to him – of being in good rich soil, of sun bright enough to nurture but not enough to wilt, of gentle water around their roots. Even the plants he knew were sick felt healthy in a way he didn’t expect.

There was also a faint sense of magic in the air. He couldn’t feel it as distinctly as with his foster-sisters’, but it was there. His inclination to storm in and demand explanations faded. The working wasn’t malicious and it could be dangerous to interrupt something in progress – he didn’t think anyone would forget when Pasco had been shoved mid-dance when trying to help corral a break-out of geese at the city markets one day. Besides, he thought this might be the music mage Daja had told him about.

He waited until the music trailed off then cleared his throat. “Would you happen to be Yennik, by any chance?” he asked.

Yennik jumped, startled. “Yes! Oh, you must be Mage Briar. Please excuse my intrusion…” He started to stand up and move out of the room. “Daja asked me to meet her here, but I’m early. I saw the plants through the window…”

“Do you usually have plants for an audience?” Briar asked, genuinely curious. He moved past Yennik into the room and ran his fingers over the leaves of a previously-blighted rosebush. The blight was still there, but the bush seemed more vigorous. Under his touch, he could feel sap flowing invigorated through the leaves.

“It’s a theory I heard. That plants respond well to music – I was just waiting and I’d wanted to practise a tune I’d heard for health. I really hope you don’t mind, I know how rude it was of me to come into your workroom.”

Briar sighed. He wanted to be angry at the intrusion, but he couldn’t be ill-disposed towards someone who had made his plants happy. Daja had spoken well of the mage anyway and he agreed with her that he made a good first impression. He’d actually hoped to meet him himself, since Daja had also mentioned the way that as the evening went on Sandry had paid more and more interest to Yennik. Daja seemed happy at the idea, and while he trusted Sandry and Daja’s judgement and ability to look after themselves, he did like to form his own opinions.

“I have to admit, whatever you did made a difference. You’re welcome to wait here for Daja if you want – I’d be interested to hear more about this theory you have for music and plants.”

Yennik smiled, seeming sure of his welcome now. “I’d be pleased to do so! If I knew I could make a difference playing for plants like this I imagine it could make such a difference for crops. People think of music as a frivolous thing, but I so much prefer to be useful.” Briar thought of the way that Sandry reacted to people who dismissed her thread magic as frippery, and grinned to himself.

Yennik paused a moment, and blushed. “Actually, I wonder if I might also get your opinion on something. I’d like to take some flowers for Lady Sandry…just to thank her for hosting us of course!...and I thought  you could tell me what she’d like?”

With the best will in the world, Briar agreed to help, with the suggestion that a (living!) potted plant would be appropriate. He mightn’t actually let this fellow know that Sandry would prefer a gift of threads to flowers any day just yet but…he had a good feeling in his gut. And his plants liked this man. That was a good start.

***

Tris found Yennik in the library at the palace. Sandry was showing him the shelves were bound books of sheet music were stored. She walked quickly to them and shoved the copy of “Music and Mathematics, with a Special Note on Patterns Found In Nature and The Relations of Music Thereon” into Yennik’s hands.

“Look after it”, she said. “This is the only copy I found and you won’t like what I’ll do to you if you dog-ear the pages or spill anything on it.”

Yennik didn’t have time to reply before she turned and stalked out of the library. Behind her she heard Sandry say “Tris leant you a book? Tris _never_ lends people books!”

Tris smiled, and kept walking.

****

Sandry was fretting, which meant that she had turned up on Lark’s doorstep in the hope that tea and conversation would help. No one could do comforting like Lark, and Sandry trusted her to tell her the truth if she were being silly.

In just a week the Kugiskan delegation were due to return home after a month’s stay, and Yennik hadn’t said if he were going to return with them, stay in Emelan, or continue travelling East. She explained this to Lark, who listened patiently.

“I _like_ him, Lark. He’s intelligent, and funny. I wasn’t sure what to make of him at first, but he’s polite instead of flirtatious and he understands magic and he’s _such_ a good musician. We’ve talked so often and I feel like I want his opinion on everything, but he respects what I say too.”

Lark listened, nodding. “Do you expect it to go anywhere? I know you’ve had flirtations, but you’re also very conscious of your position. I don’t think I’ve seen you like this over a man before.”

“That’s the problem!” Sandry said. “I think it _could_ go somewhere. He’s from a noble family – a younger son of a younger son, which is why they didn’t fuss about him studying magic and travelling – but he’s high enough ranked that if I were to marry him it wouldn’t cause a fuss. I think that we could be good partners and work well together. But I can’t make that kind of decision after knowing him for just a month, and I don’t think I can ask him to stay longer in case he thinks I’m leading him on.”

Lark sighed. “I actually think you’ve got perfectly reasonable concerns here. Have you talked to your siblings about it? To your uncle?”

Sandry blushed. “I didn’t want to bother them with something so silly.”

“So you bother me instead,” Lark said wryly. “They love you! I know they all want you to be happy. Believe me, none of them would consider your happiness as silly at all.” Lark paused, then sighed, grinning. “Actually, I’m sure of it. It seems that more than one of them thought you might come to talk to me about this, and I’ve had a couple of messages come my way.”

Sandry straightened. “They went behind my back?” she said, temper starting to rise.

“Only because you’ve spent the last month being coy if they tried to raise the issue with you!” protested Lark, moving to pick up a couple of letters and a wax tablet from a side table. “Here; Yazmin sent me a note inviting me to a performance next week in which she noted that your uncle was hoping to persuade a certain music mage to play, noting conspicuously that Vedris has mentioned several times the young man’s breeding and fine manners. Daja sent a note up with some repaired jewellery; she also mentioned she’d been pleased to meet Yennik and asked if I might know other musicians in Summersea she might introduce him to.”

Sandry was sitting a bit shocked, but Lark went on. “Tris was a bit blunter; she just stopped in on her way to the library at Winding Circle to say she thought you were being silly about something but if I talked to you I should know that she thought the man rather intelligent. Which as you know, is high praise from Tris.” Sandry nodded. “And Briar sent him up to play to Rosethorn’s plants.”

Sandry blinked. “To _Rosethorn’s_ plants? Was she here at the time?”

Lark grinned. “No, which is how I know Briar likes him too.”

Sandry grinned back, looking brighter than she had all afternoon.  “They all like him?” she asked.

Lark nodded. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t make up your own mind – goodness knows you’ll do that anyway! – but it does make me think that if you were to ask him to stay on in Summersea a while it might be worth your while.”

Sandry finished her tea and pushed back from the table. “Thank you, Lark, for the tea and advice. If you’ll excuse me, I think I need to go and have a conversation about travel plans with some members of the delegation. Well, one member in particular.”

Smiling, Lark watched her mount her riding horse and trot quickly back down the road to Summersea and the palace.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays, JanLevine! Thank you for an excuse to re-read all of the Emelan books. You asked for how everyone might be affected when one of the quartet gets involved with someone. At the end of the day, I couldn't imagine any of them getting seriously involved now without the input - and approval! - of the others. I hope you enjoy the story. :-)


End file.
